San Francisco, US, February 16, 2018 — Microsoft keeps pushing their assistant AI Cortana, in competition to Siri, Alexa, the Google Assistant, and works together with IFTTT to reach more devices and users.
Cortana might be the forgotten contender from the voice assistant wars, as Microsoft-powered mobile devices fall into oblivion. But, there are still millions of Windows 10 PCs and tablets out there that can take your verbal orders via the company’s home help.
And for smart home users, the sexy creation from Halo reduced to your desktop buddy can now play a wider role thanks to IFTTT (If This, Then That) integration that enables it to work with a wider range of smart home devices.
Cortana has the voice
These include ecobee (pictured) and Honeywell smart thermostats, LIFX smart lighting and a range of other products, adding to the roster of supported gadgets. IFTTT support means that users can also add the many smart little programs that link various gadgets together or use those that simply don’t support Cortana. IFTTT supports a huge range of products and pulls of a range of neat tricks through the many available applets.
Multi-device homes can use Cortana on iOS and Android devices, with a recently improved iPad version that takes advantage of the extra screen space. That’s if they dislike Siri or Google Home for some reason. So, now anyone can say “set the temperature to 65 degrees” or “start the smart oven” with almost any device.
While its good to see Microsoft trying to make waves in the smart home space, the whole industry seems to have mired into a range of modest updates and me-too products in recent generations, which has taken the shine off somewhat. And when people have got a couple of smart lights and perhaps a robotic vacuum cleaner, there seems to be little drive except among enthusiasts to go full smart home.
Let us know how far your smart home ideas have got, and what’s the best and worst products you have seen.
Photo credit: IFTTT / ecobee
Source: Article on IFTTT blog
